REShow: Tom Pelissero & Ric Flair - Hour 2

This is the Rich Eisen Show.

You know what was another surprise to me? Lamar Jackson. Jackson takes the snap. Fire to the end zone. Touchdown Rashad Bateman! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

How's your wife's hands doing? Okay, the guy walked in the arena, everybody cheered, she gave him the finger, nobody got arrested. Here on the show, Eagles Center Jason Kelsey. Coming up, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. Wrestling Hall of Famer Ric Flair.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Rod Woodson. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. I just had a great chat in our green room with Ric Flair. He is here. He is here.

The nature boy is in our green room right now. So, I should also mention that we're about to zoom and get some top notch information from NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. Our number three, Hall of Famer and one of the voices of Ravens radio because we were very Bengals heavy at the top.

We'll talk about the Ravens side of things in the week 11 kickoff with Rod Woodson. TJ Jefferson. You're not ready yet? He's not ready. He's tying his tie.

He's tying his tie. You got this, TJ. Take your time. No rush.

Take your time. Tom Pelissero. Is Tom checking in? Is he working on his hand? Is he drawing? He might have a carpal tunnel thing on. He's drawing gloves on?

He's drawing gloves. Get out of here. Joining us here now on the Rich Eisen Show, my colleague. Usual Friday spot from the NFL Network, NFL media group, Tom Pelissero. Good to see you, Tom. Good to see you, Rich. What was Joe Burrow wearing on his hand coming off of, I guess, a team vehicle of some sort on Wednesday? What's going on, Tom? What was that all about?

I mean, I've seen the same Zapruder film that you have, Rich. It does look like it's a pretty common device that you would use if you're dealing with wrist pain on the thumb side of things. I didn't even realize just kind of how much that had been sent around the Internet prior to Joe Burrow, then suffering the wrist injury and having to drop out of that game last night.

I would say this. You know, the NFL every year, there's always sort of touchstone moments where, whether it is a sportsmanship issue like earlier this year when they sent the thing about pregame fights, or whether it is potential manipulations of injury reports where the league says enough is enough and they punish somebody and they send a memo to everyone going, hey, if you do this now, it's going to be worse. This might be that moment for the injury reports just because it looks like fairly blatant that something was going on with his wrist here. Plus, it's a quarterback.

It's a nationally televised game. They'll go through the normal process. They always review these.

But I would not be surprised if there's some type of a sanction that ends up coming down from the bank. What if it was really a drawing glove for an iPad? Will they want to see what he was drawing? What was he drawing? Like a cat? Maybe a Bengal? You know what I mean?

Will they want to see the actual artwork, Tom? I thought, based on the leather jacket he was wearing with it, it might have been like a leftover Michael Jackson Halloween costume. That was the real glove. That's where my brain was going.

But iPad drawing glove, yeah, that's a totally normal thing. It could be. I don't know. I don't know.

Do we have the photograph of it? I think, honestly, Tom, I mean, the number of Bengals fans were like, you know, everybody's barking up the wrong tree here. And it would stand to reason why Zach Taylor's like, yeah, the first I heard about it was when he got hurt on the field. But you could see it does actually look quite a bit like the glove that he was wearing coming off the bus, Tom, to be straight up with it. It certainly could be. And we'll find out. That's why the legal review, all the practice reports and the medical reports and photos and videos and everything else here.

But again, if they in fact find that there was any type of a violation of any preexisting injury, then I would not be surprised at all if this ends up being that moment where they decide to send a message by punishing somebody. Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen Show. And let's get to what he is actually suffering from right now.

What is it? Zach Taylor called it a wrist sprain, not believed to be anything that's broken, but obviously it was sufficient that it impact his ability even to grasp the football. I mean, I was struck by the image on the sideline of him just trying to even cock the ball back and throw it.

It's like the ball comes loose before he could even begin to bring the arm forward. You know, that would tell you that he's dealing with something significant enough here that he was not going to be able to go back into that game. So at this point, I would fairly say that people are bracing for this to be something that keeps Joe Burrow out for at least a little bit of time here. We also know that Joe Burrow, his competitive nature, how he handles his body, the way that he pushed through the calf, that if there's a way physically possible for him to tape it up or wear a brace or wear his iPad drawing glove on the field, it might be that he's going to go ahead and do that.

I don't put anything past Joe Burrow here. But again, he was getting an MRI. I think that already happened this morning here.

You're always going to go out and get second opinions on things like this. And the fact they played it Thursday night gives them a little bit more time here to kind of go through that process and try to make some final determinations over the weekend. And the other conversation to be had coming out of the game involving the league and those certainly on the competition committee involves the dreaded hip drop tackle that we saw used by Logan Wilson, who was a one man wrecking crew against the Ravens last night.

And Mark Andrews is out for the season with an ankle injury. What is the status of this conversation? And do you think last night's game will fuel any more talk about getting this out of the game? Any time you have something this high profile, it's bound to drive the conversation a little bit because the competition committee is made up of coaches and there's front office people.

There's different conversations and they see the same things that we do. You know, last year the competition committee considered this and part of the conversation there was the NFL Players Association publicly and privately was against banning that particular tackle. And that's based on a couple of things. One is enforceability, which is you can look at the tackle on Mark Andrews and say, OK, that's a blatant, dangerous type of tackle. This is what the league's been talking about with a far higher injury rate. Then you look at the same player, Logan Wilson, who tackles Lamar Jackson at the sideline. And that's kind of like a half hip drop tackle. Lamar's ankle ends up getting trapped under it. He's limping around in the game. You know, we'll find out if that's a, you know, a high ankle sprain or something.

He's going to be able to work his way through here. But, you know, that play, OK, one is clear black and white. The one on the sideline is much closer. So do you want to have officials then throwing flags for that? Do we want to introduce another thing that they're supposed to be looking for? So that's one of the reasons the P.A. was against it. The second reason was because the reason that you have more of these techniques in terms of wrapping up, for instance, around the waist and pulling a player down is because you can't go up higher. You can't do a lot of the traditional tackling techniques, even though they may not have been safe. But anything that involves lowering a shoulder, lowering the helmet, you run the risk of getting penalized for use of a helmet or more likely being fined for it. So there's certainly I think we all look at that play, Rich, and say we don't want that in the game.

I mean, you can see it's high ankle sprains and it's snapped ankles. And in Mark Andrews case, it may well have been both. We don't want to have those types of injuries occur. But there is another side of this. And it's notable that the body, the union that is there to protect the players was actually against outlawing this.

They're going to have to find a way, if they are going to ban it, to create language that is clear for officials to actually be able to officiate this and not add one more thing, Rich, that we all sit back, watch on TV and go, well, that looked like that might have been, was this the, you want to eliminate all the ambiguity you can. Tom Pelissaro here on the Rich Oz Show, and I'll bring up this subject matter with Rod Woodson, an all pro, all world Hall of Fame defender later on in the program. Let's hit the Cleveland Browns here. Why DTR? What was their thought process to go with Dorian Thompson Robinson here, Tom? Well, the thought all along, Rich, was that Dorian Thompson Robinson going into the season was going to be the number two quarterback behind Deshaun Watson.

That's why they traded away Josh Dobbs when they did late in the preseason was because they felt like DTR had earned the role. So, you know, why now versus P.J. Walker?

There were some giveaways that P.J. Walker had. There was the one in Seattle where you're just hoping, hey, we got a really good defense. We can run the football.

Just don't put us in those spots. Even the game that P.J. Walker won the first one in place of Deshaun Watson. He made a throw late in that game that should have been picked off and probably could have cost him the game. They want to make sure they're, number one, giving DTR that opportunity.

But number two, playing the guy who's not going to allow the quarterback position to lose the games. You go back to the evaluation of DTR coming out of UCLA. He had played like 50 games in college.

One of those COVID guys who had the extra year and, you know, started, he broke every record. Part because he played so many games, but also because he was a really good quarterback. The reason that he slid down was not about talent. He went in the fifth round because there were a lot of things, particularly going back to his junior year at UCLA where it was maturity.

It was this guy is all caught up in social media. He's not the type of leader we want in the program. For everything that was said about him prior to that in 2022, everybody said he actually improved as a passer.

He improved as a leader, his maturity, all that. In 2022, the Browns were willing to take the chance on that. Well, now you get into this spot, he does bring some different things to the table. I talked to Amari Cooper about it yesterday. He said, hey, you know, we know he can run. We know he can sling it, but he's still a young player. That's what the Browns are getting here.

Figure out, you know that, okay, the floor might be really low. You saw it when he started very last minute, but let's give him a full week of reps, a full week to understand you're going to be the guy. Design a game plan about what you do best, and maybe there's more upside that can help this team as the Browns try to make a playoff push. What's your two cents on the move to bounce Ken Dorsey and put in Joe Brady and what it means, Tom? There were a lot of layers to that, and I think you saw a lot of those, Rich, kind of come out over the past several days here, whether it was Josh Allen talking about how much Ken Dorsey meant to him and how much it hurt. Joe Brady, his interim replacement, saying I'm only here because of Ken Dorsey, and I love that guy to death. Sean McDermott did something that you don't always hear, which is he kind of pulled back the curtain. He said the quiet part out loud when he was addressing reporters later on Tuesday, hours after making that move, and he was repeatedly asked, why?

Why did you have to do this? And he said, we're going to be back in that locker room, in the stadium, in five days, and I need players to walk in there knowing something has changed. That's a pretty direct way of saying we can't cut all the players who are dropping footballs and fumbling. We're not going to cut the quarterback who is missing guys who are open around the field.

And this is a play like Josh Allen. The one thing you can do at this stage in the season, on a team that you still feel is a contender, is to try to create a seed change, is move on from the guy calling the plays. And Ken Dorsey, he was respected, he was really liked by players, he's meticulous, he is super smart. There are probably times where, like a lot of young coaches, he doesn't necessarily see the big picture in things, in terms of how his offense is playing to the other strengths of the team, the game flow and things like that. But this was not a strict Ken Dorsey issue. If you go back to that game in Buffalo on Monday night, Rich, I find myself asking that next day, if they don't give up those two big passes when you've got zero blitz on, and if they don't have a 12th man on the field goal, and they just win the game by a point, are you still moving on from Ken Dorsey? This was reactionary, I think that's objectively true, but it's also a reaction Sean McDermott felt that he had to make.

There just was not a lot of energy and juice in that offense. We're hoping Joe Brady is going to give it, and I'll be fascinated to see, given how Joe Brady, all that was said about him coming out of LSU, how smart he was. Remember, he interviewed Rich for like five head coaching jobs in the first year in Carolina, even though they weren't good on offense, that rule was really involved in that scheme, all the way down to what a play is called and things like that. Eventually, Matt Ruhl coming back from the bye week fired Joe Brady. If Sean McDermott is a little bit more hands-off and lets Joe Brady go to work, I'm interested to see what this offense will look like. Yeah, Brady was the hottest coordinator on the market coming off of the Joe Burrow 60 touchdown season, you know, and he wound up in Carolina, and we were all in the media saying great hire by Matt Ruhl, and here they go, and we all know what's happened since then. So I'll ask you the question I've been asking a whole bunch of others this week, what is your interpretation of Trevon Diggs' tweet during the game involving his brother and referring to him by his uniform number needing to get up out of there? What do you make of that one?

I would say this, Rich. The Diggs brothers have mastered the art of saying things that are just cryptic enough on social media that they're going to get a lot of attention, and this wasn't even all that cryptic. This was 14 needs to get up out of there and saying, you know, the quarterback didn't go off until Diggs got there. You know, those guys, they do like to stir it up. Trevon's got a lot of time on his hands because he's rehabbing from that torn ACL that he suffered earlier this season, but it's a storyline. Listen, I was sitting in that seat, Rich, with the boys. Hey, what's up to the fellows in studio? I was there this summer when Diggs' member wasn't out there the first day of mini camp, and you had this really weird sequence of events where McDermott was explaining things one way, then he had to come back, and then his agent countered all that, and then McDermott had to correct the record. There's been something going on there. The reality was, though, the Bills were never going to trade Stefan Diggs.

They couldn't. The cap implications, even if they wanted to, were so great, and he's also, quite frankly, one of your best players, and you need Stefan Diggs on that team right now. I got no doubt that Diggs is frustrated. He's an all-time competitor. His heart is in a good place, but he likes a little bit of the drama sometimes. His brother's stirring it up. I wouldn't expect him to shy away from it, but these sides are together through the course of this season. They've got to do their best to try to make a run here.

Whether they do or they don't, we'll be talking about Stefan Diggs again come February and March. Tom, you're the man. Greatly appreciate it. Go back to the insiders on NFL Network and NFL Plus, and we'll do it again next week. Appreciate the time. Sounds great, Rich.

Thanks. That's Tom Pelissaro right here on the Rich Eisen Show. You got that Josh Allen soundbite we didn't play yesterday?

Please go grab it if you don't mind. Because, again, we could sit here and speculate what McDermott is putting all out there on the line. I mean, Marshall Faulk on what the football said it was desperate because he got rid of he was the first one on the podcast, by the way, with Suzie Schuster, Amy Trask, Get It, We're All Podcasts are Acquired. He's the first one to basically say, well, he got rid of Leslie Frazier last year. And when I heard that on what the football, I'm like, that's right. That's why he's walking around the hallways of NFL Network right now. And so he got rid of the D.C., got rid of the O.C.

I believe Albert Breer in yesterday's show called it. He's the Will Smith GIF, and he wasn't referring to the Oscars. He's referring to him at the end of Fresh Prince walking into the empty living room. Right.

Everyone's moved out like I'm the last one here. And so we could sit there and say McDermott's now placed himself. There's no one else like if he says that he wanted everyone in that building to know in five days when they walk back in or whatever that something's changed.

Maybe the Pagulas will wind up feeling that way about him if this doesn't work out. And the if this doesn't work out is if there is no improvement in the offense. And let's just be straight up. Josh Allen throwing 11 interceptions, one more than Mac Jones on the year is a large part of it. And it's not always him. Right.

This is kind of like the conversation. TJ, we had about Dak last year, right? Like one last week.

He threw one terrible one, Allen, and then he threw one that went off of Gabe Davis's hands, which is on his sheet. All right. Bottom line, it really is.

How is Josh Allen going to improve? Period. End of story. How is he going to attack this day? And this was what he had to say about the firing of Ken Dorsey. And I find it an interesting soundbite.

Let's hit it, please. You mentioned a little bit feeling like if you guys had played better, Ken Dorsey would still have his job. I mean, that's that's without a doubt, you know, and I take that very personally. You know, I it hurts.

It hurts a lot to see someone you care about. Go through a situation like that and to know that, you know, if I could have done more, this offense could have done more. We wouldn't have had to do something like that. So again, it's an unfortunate series of events that have led up to it.

But again, like as much as you can sit here and feel sorry for yourself and you can sulk on what's going on. We got a game to prepare for and it's four days away. So we can't pay too much attention to it. We got to focus on on what we can control.

And that's our attitude and efforts every time we step on this field and practice and walkthroughs and meetings and make sure that we're we're going to be prepared to go come Sunday. I mean, attaboy. That is a I mean, talk about an honest answer, you know? Yeah, you're right. I think about it. It hurts because if we did play better, but, you know, we have a job to do and they got to win.

And you can't sit around and dwell on it. I thought that was such a it's such a revealing sound bite in a very clearly, you know, emotionally aware individual, which is what you need for a quarterback. We just need to get that Mandalorian guy back.

Remember, that's how I first started referring to him. Yeah, we need that guy back. We need that guy who was moving the offense crisply as soon as the play was over. Here he comes again and he's going to be difficult to sack. He's going to extend the play and he's going to jam it right down your throat with his arm and with his legs. And we need to see that guy back. The question is, is he physically ready to do it?

Is he is he physically, you know? Hundred percent enough to do it. And if I'm Joe Brady, that's what I'm going to try and do. And, you know, certainly if the coach is going to let him be all this stuff of just be careful, slide and all that, of course, you need to slide. But let's get Josh Allen just running down people's throats, actual running plays for Allen again.

And then when you get that mojo back, then you can do other stuff. Yeah. That's Mike Hoskins are Bill's loving, coordinating producer, dialing up him, leaping over people. That's the Allen we need to see. And I think that's the Allen the rest of his team will respond to and give me at least three to four touches in the first drive of number 14. Get him going.

That's what I would do. Now, obviously, the defense that he's playing against this week. Knows it and is really ready to prevent it.

What a big game this is, but I just thought it was such an emotionally aware thing for him to say. You know, but which wasn't at the beginning of the season, Chris, also, you know, at the end of last season, didn't people all say that Josh Allen shouldn't do as much? No, I know that. And I know that that was what's coming in. That's exactly right. And I was saying that they fixed that problem because they got Latavious Murray and they got Damien Harris and they got Dalton Kincaid.

And it took Dalton Kincaid half a season as it happens with rookies to start getting that guy done. And then that now, you know, Harris's gal, you know, let's let's see Fournette. Right.

And so be that as it may didn't work. Scrap it to go back to OC out. New OC in. Let's see it. Let's go.

What do you got to lose here? Except the season and then maybe the HC is gig. 844-204 Rich number to dial. Here comes Ric Flair in studio. Let's do it. Don't you dare move. He showed me a text back there that is lit.

I can't wait to talk to him about it. All right, folks, let's talk about game time and let's talk about buying tickets to big time events, because it can be worrisome. It can be time consuming and it can be expensive. So game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports music, comedy and theater events near you. You can see the view from your seat before you buy.

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Visit prizepicks.com for restrictions and details. Tonight, live on TNT, AEW Collision and AEW Full Gear takes place this Saturday night live on Pay-Per-View. Both events emanate live from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California, just up the road from NFL Network, as a matter of fact. The great, brilliant, nature boy himself, Ric Flair is here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's go. How are you, sir? I'm great. Thank you. This is great, isn't it?

This is great. TJ, what are you wearing right now, TJ? What are you wearing right now? Well, you know, I had to get my suit from Michael's in Kansas City. I had to get that shipped out because the nature boy was in town. And of course... I should have really gotten tricked out for you today.

You look great. That presence is enough, sir. Yes, indeed. So you're going to be at the Kia Forum, obviously, right? You're going to be involved in all that? Yes. Hope so. Of course you will. You know exactly what you're going to do.

Third is playing the game, man. Do you know what you're going to say right now? Do you know what you're going to say right now, or just comes off the dome? No, I don't know. I haven't heard.

Just comes off the dome. Well, that used to, but now they prefer to, you know, make sure that I understand the script. There's something you can't say that you used to say in the 80s. A little too much nature? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So now you're moving way too fast, Rick. And then you've got your energy drink, the official energy drink of AEW. And what's it called, Rick?

What's it called? Woo Energy. Mushroom infused. The healthy mushrooms. The healthy mushrooms, of course. Shiitake. Happy to go all night long. I have no idea.

I'm not really a mushroom guy. Again, it's for All Elite Wrestling taking place tonight on TNT and AEW Full Gear, a pay-per-view event on Saturday night. We had Tony Khan here a few months ago, and we're big AEW fans here on The Rich Eisen Show. Couldn't be more excited to have Ric Flair, Nature Boy, here on this program as we're back with our radio audience now on The Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at The Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by as Ric Flair, Nature Boy, has done. It is really great to see you. How did Woo come about for the first time? What's the origin of that, Rick? It's just driving down the road one night, listening to Jerry Lewis back in the 70s.

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire, Woo. That was it? It kind of inspired me. I was a big fan of his, and that's back in the 70s.

We used to drive 3,000 miles a week in old town to town. Sure. And I just started saying it in 1974, and it stuck. Thank God. Do you remember the first time you used it?

It would have been in a promo in 74 at Jim Crocker Promotions. Okay. And did somebody just say you got to keep that, or you just decided? No, I just caught on. And now it's like everybody in the world is doing it.

And I'm not getting paid enough. It's trademarked. I mean, you must walk down the street and just hear it.

Yeah, I do. Thank God. What's the strangest place you've had somebody scream that to you? Oh, God, they're screaming everywhere. Like where, church, bathrooms?

Not at church, but maybe outside of church, but bathrooms for sure. Woo, Rick Flair's in the bathroom. Wow, man. Somebody makes a boom boom and behind the door he's screaming woo. I'm not going to shake your hand until we get out of here, okay?

Jesus, it's unbelievable. Oh, my gosh. Fantastic. And so what do you remember most of those early days in your career, Rick? Oh, just, you know, the thing that it's like I've found it again here, just the day I walk in here, it's a camaraderie. I just love being with the guys. It's almost like a disease with me.

I just like being with the guys and I like going in front of a live audience. I like, you know, it's like now I'm right back in the same business where just like you, you wait every day. I don't know how hard you sit on it, because you have people to handle it for you, but you just want to know the rating. You want to know what your quarter hour did. It's back in the race, yeah.

So at five o'clock, whatever day I'm on, the next day like I've been doing my whole life, five o'clock looking for the rating, what did my quarter hour do? It's competition. What's your favorite place you performed in where you love it more than most, Rick Flair? You know, there have been so many great cities.

I used to wrestle at the Forum out here and run into Kareem and Magic and all those guys. I mean, James Worthy grew up in Charlotte, basically. I liked it out here. Chicago is great. Atlanta is great. Of course, North Carolina, I think that's where I was for 42 years. Anywhere there. Orlando is great.

It's hard to pick one out. Overseas, of course, I like Tokyo and London. Birmingham are great. Sydney and... Melbourne all over the world.

Auckland, New Zealand, name it. TJ is one of your hugest fans. And I always do this.

TJ, go for it. Ask Rick Flair a question. You know, it's like how do you come up with a single question to ask someone who's been in your life since, you know, I was 10 years old, you know. And Saturday nights at 605, Rick, that was it for me and my grandfather, but... We did that at eight o'clock in the morning, you know. I read that, yes.

After coming on a bucket. So you really? We take that show at eight o'clock in the morning. We were working in a venue somewhere when it was airing. Yeah. That night.

Wow. So, I mean, Rick, at what point, and, you know, I've read your book multiple times, I've seen the documentaries, things of that nature, but when did you know? Do you remember the point when you were like, okay, I got this now. The second time I won the world title. So from Harley at Starrcade?

Yeah, at Starrcade, yeah. The first time I won it, I thought I knew it all, and boy, did I find out. Because I had been wrestling really good wrestlers in the Mid-Atlantic area, like top guys. And when I won the world championship, and I started traveling around where the guys weren't nearly as experienced, some weren't as experienced as I was, you know what I mean?

Yeah. And you have to wrestle an hour every night, which we did back then. And I just learned real fast that I had a lot to learn. But the second time around, I was ready, I was gonna be prepared for whatever situation arose. And then from there, I just rock and rolled.

Once I found my groove, which I think it's the same way with anybody, whether you're in medicine or in broadcasting, you find your groove. Yeah. I mean, look at Rich Eisen. I've wanted to be on your show forever. Oh, stop, Rich Eisen. No, I swear. I saw my daughter on it. My daughter, Rich Eisen, I'm not.

I was across the street with the Migos, and you had her in Miami at the Super Bowl. That's right. That's right. Yeah.

Absolutely. I come to Ashley and go, what do you do with Rich Eisen? We heard you were in town. We're like, Ric Flair's in town.

You want him on Friday. I mean, how quickly? That was a snap, yes? Absolutely. That was a snap, yes, for sure.

It was an even faster snap for me, yes. Oh, fantastic. So I'd love for you to tell me a story about somebody that you wrestled with or you got to know through another legend who affected you or became a friend of yours or somebody from... Well, the guy that... One of the reasons I'm back here now with AEW is my friend Sting, legendary Sting.

I'm sure TJ knows Sting right in our history. Of course. He's retiring. And I'm gonna be part of the journey until he retires.

It's either in March or April. Mm-hmm. And I'm just part of the journey along the way with him. And then whatever transpires after that, like Pedro Morales, remember that name, Pedro?

Sure. I read him for any kind of action. You got an Andre the Giant story?

Yeah, I got it. I traveled with Andre. I drove him around. What do you mean you drove him around? Well, he started in Minneapolis.

Okay. He came from France to Montreal. In Montreal, he came to Minneapolis and trained with Vern Gagne when I was there.

Mm-hmm. So Vern had me driving him around. It was just John Ferreira. It wasn't Andre the Giant yet, right? Right. So he just stuffed himself into the front seat? Oh, yeah, yeah. In the back seat.

Oh, back seat. Yeah, but I just drove him like Chicago and that. I took him out on Rush Street. It was a great time.

What in the world is that like, Ric Flair taking Andre the Giant on Rush Street? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I have been on a 747 with him, Rich. Mm-hmm. Two of the most famous stories. And I know that aside from him, he got about 300 pastas, right?

Mm-hmm. But he drank every bottle of vodka on the plane. On a 747 going to Tokyo. Every mini bottle on the plane. I mean, I know other people are drinking it too, but let's get serious. Who runs out of vodka, right?

And then twitches something else. What does a mini bottle look like in Andre the Giant's hands? Yeah, I know.

You know how they sound when people do that, but they used to give him mini bottles and he'd pour it on the drink. Sure, of course. Yeah, right. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yeah, unbelievable.

Size 24 ring. And then I was with him one night at the downtowner in Charlotte in 74, 75, when he drank 106 beers. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Who counted?

You counted? Well, no, here's what happened is it was getting so ridiculous. He came one night for another ride and he was with Frank Vowah, myself, and a guy named Ivan Koloff.

Mm-hmm. And we were there drinking and he just pretty soon the bartender just said, I'm not believing this. So he said, let me separate this out. Because Andre was drinking one beer and everybody else was drinking. I think he was drinking like regular Miller, not Miller, that wasn't around then. And we were drinking something else. So he just separated out and Frank Vowah drank 56, his manager at the time, and Andre drank 106. Yeah.

That's a lot of bottles on the wall. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

That's from 10 o'clock until like four in the morning. Yeah. Listen, guys, he could go. And you could go, Rick.

Yeah. I could go too. But I can't hold that much beer.

I can hold a lot of liquor. Oh, man. Rick Flair here on the Rich Eisen Show.

All right. Let's get into it. Perfect day for you to be here because all of us Harbaugh lovers, we got a band together, man.

Yes. How'd you meet Jim? I met Jim in 1989. He came to watch me wrestle with Brad Muster and at 89, he was playing quarterback for the Bears and he came to Chicago Chi-town Heat. So you've known him forever.

You go way back. I met him that night, right? And then he had me come. It was a strange moment. He called the WWE and wanted me to come and talk to the 49ers prior to the Green Bay game.

And nobody was supposed to know, right? Now, my friend Kevin Green, who was passed away in the Hall of Fame, is a linebacker coach and he called me and said, I heard you're in Green Bay, so what are you doing here? I said, I'm thinking about coming to the game. And then, of course, the word got out that I gave him that pep talk and I made national news. Steve Smith burned my, took my robe and tore it up, but Steve got mad because it was like I was going against the Panthers, right? But Kevin Green texted me saying, so it's unfortunately Kevin, but it's just my job. The WWE sent me. So it wasn't personal and Kevin was really mad, but it was one of those deals that just in an awkward position to be in. Sure, but Harbaugh's your guy.

You go back. Yeah, I know. I love him. I just went and saw him. Yeah, literally a week and a half ago. How was he? Great.

He came face on, his assistant said, this is the happiest I've seen him in four days. Is that right? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it's been tough. I mean, I'm just, I'm just so disappointed. If you know a Jim Harbaugh, if you know his family, his brother, I mean, Jack, just a quality guy.

And I'm glad John won last night. It just, and these people just, it's like a witch hunt. I mean, I don't get, I don't want him to leave Michigan when I wouldn't blame him at all because he did. Well, I mean, just to get out of the scrutiny, my guy. Yeah, but I mean, scrutiny is going to find, scrutiny finds him everywhere, you know, no matter where he is.

Yeah, but it could be a witch hunt. He's good. Well, I don't want him to leave, personally, because I mean, the kids, the kids on this program right now, Rick, they're as great as they've ever been, and it's, I don't want to hear, I mean, obviously what was going on with this ticket, you know, and, you know, whatever the scheme was going on for scouting, in-person scouting and whatever, the kids are, he's put together an outstanding team.

Unbelievable team. Right, so that's the way I'm looking at it. They're going to spank everybody on the way through. I hope they spank in Georgia. I'll be careful.

I'll find one on the sidelines, me on one sideline and him on the other. No, hold on, let's talk about this because you showed me this in the green room. So Finebaum texted you?

Is that what you're saying? I tweeted, I tweeted, he, what happened was, it was on either get up or first take, right? So they brought up Finebaum Paul, who I know, and when he first had me on the show was, well, we have the great Ric Flair, not so much anymore, and so he is actually jousting with Desmond, and I mean, and he goes, I mean, literally, I was a big, like, well, we won the Big Ten twice, it's all in the Southeast Conference, we don't have an account of a Big Ten championship. I mean, it's an insult to the whole Big Ten, I mean, really, he shouldn't be allowed to drive into any state with a Big Ten school.

Who says that? I mean, he's jousting, like he knows more about the football than Desmond Howard, the guy that won the Heisman Trophy, remember, like, and MVP, and it's unbelievable. So I tweeted out, you gotta be kidding me, a non-athletic analyst from the Southeast Conference, jousting with Desmond Howard, I don't think so, shame, he would, he sent me a note, he took it personal, he, you know. He sent you a note saying that- Basically, I said, hi, Paul Finebaum here, so sorry that you've lost so many fans in the South, okay, I don't know where that, but I just said- You're embracing Harbaugh.

Embracing Harbaugh and ditching Kirby Smart, I go, okay, that made a lot of sense. Wow. So I just said, you know, all I take to text back was, apparently not everybody agrees, sir. Well, speaking as it's somebody unathletic, you know, we should be able to say whatever we want to say, I just got to push back for those, you know, follically challenged unathletic people in front of a microphone, but that said, you know, does he have your number or he got it? Well, I've been on his show, but I'm his friend. Okay. No, but I didn't mean, it wasn't about being athletic, but I mean, he literally was insulting, you know, I've never seen, I watch your show religiously, I've never seen you talk, if Desmond Howard was sitting here, would you actually argue with him about football?

No, I wouldn't. Thank you. That's why you're successful. And look at this. This is better than Joe Rogan's layout here, by the way, ladies and gentlemen. This is a great spot. These headquarters are beautiful, I mean, and tricked out. Thank you.

We're so happy for your success. On the biggest hill, on the biggest side of town, in the biggest backyard. Would you mind doing us the favor of cutting a Rich Eisen show pro? I absolutely will. Would you do it like right now? Can you do it right now? If I just sit and set it up like Ric Flair.

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. We're ready. Ric Flair, a promo for the Rich Eisen show. This is the Ned Gervaux Ric Flair, live from Rich Eisen studio in LA. Looking as old as I can look, praising the great Rich Eisen, the man, the myth, the legend, the limousine ride, and I'm sure what private jets fly. Kiss stealing, wheeling dealing, son of a gun that owns the airways every time he opens his mouth.

Woo! Rich Eisen. Got it. Yes. That's it. We've been talking about it beforehand, like, you know, we've got to get... Yeah, Rich was like, should we write something?

I'm like, Rick don't need no writers. He's the best there is. So a Woo energy drink can be found at... It's WooEnergy.com, but hold on a minute, I got to make sure everyone knows it. There's five O's in Woo energy, so it's W5O's energy.com. And by the way, it's the official drink of the Michigan Wolverines.

Now I know, everybody thought it was because of the signs and whatever, now I know what's going on. Yep. All right. Well, thanks for coming in here, Rick. Thank you. Honored.

Sir, please stop, man. We are... No, I was always so upset that my daughter was on your show and I wasn't. Now we're tied at one apiece. Actually, wherever we are, I finally made it to the big time. And it's a race to break the tie. Charlotte.

Excuse me, Charlotte. Auto Collision takes place tonight on TNT, AEW Full Gear takes place Saturday on Pay Per View. Both events coming from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California, the great Nick Flair, Rick Flair, Nature Boy.

Great to see you, Rick Flair. Thank you. Honored, man. Thank you. Right here on The Rich Eyes Show.

We're back with more in a moment. Let's talk Audible, people. Audible lets you enjoy all of your audio entertainment all in one app, titles in every kind in all categories. Wellness, bestsellers, and new releases, as well as podcasts and originals. And Audible members can keep one title a month from the entire catalog.

You keep it. You'll always find the best of what you love or something new to discover. You know, I travel a lot, especially during football season, and right now, listening to player memoirs from Audible really helps me relax and pass the time on long flights. With the app, you can listen anywhere, as it's all in one spot. Whether I'm on a transatlantic flight or on a long car ride with my family, I just put on an audiobook from Audible, and boom.

It's so easy to just listen. New members can try Audible now free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash eisen, or text eisen to 500-500. That's audible.com slash E-I-S-E-N, or text E-I-S-E-N to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days. The football season is underway, and Believe podcasts are talking about it. When he went home and went to sleep, Michael Parsons was terrorizing him.

Believe has podcasts covering all 32 professional teams, and many of your favorite college teams too. And to be only producing 15 points a game, that's something that is definitely disheartening. Sideline to sideline, end zone to end zone. As a quarterback, I would expect them to be acting like that. Take the accountability. Put that on yourself. Don't put it on your teammates.

Search B-L-E-A-V podcasts wherever you listen. Where could you do, like, what's the move that you could actually perform right now? Oh man, you know what? I can kick a guy in the nuts without actually kicking him in the nuts.

Yeah, I'm gonna pass on that. Hold on a minute. No, it's my party trick. I guarantee it.

I won't hurt you. So, is this a, is this a- I'll take my tank-kickers off. Could this be sanctioned? Could she try to- Yeah. Okay. Who would volunteer for this work? Come on, you just have to spread your legs and wish for the best.

Mike, Del Tufo. I mean, we'll both do it. We'll both do it, man. What are we about to attempt to do right here? Kick him in the nuts. Without actually hurting him.

Kick him in the nuts. Yeah, exactly. But you do, you will make contact.

I'll make contact, yeah. Absolutely. Okay, but you will not hurt him. No. Well, it doesn't matter.

You have no desire to have children anyway. No, I'm good. Yeah, exactly. Okay.

WWE superstar Paige. We'll see. Do we have, do we have the- go ahead and hit it through, Jay. Okay, ready? Okay, ready?

If I was you, I'd pull your shorts up a little bit just so I can have a bullseye, you know? There we go. Got it. Jeez.

All right, ready? This is great. Is it?

I don't think she's laughing. I don't know. I know. All right, Paige. How about it? Ready?

Superstar Paige, here we go. Not him. There we go. No contact. I just slapped him on the butt.

No contact. Yeah. You're up next.

That was a good slap on the- Yes. You're up next. Uh-oh.

Ready? Spread it. You're the one who was making fun of her, so there we go. It just hurts on your butt. I'm sorry. Are you serious?

Are you serious, Chris? I'm seven. Big Smith match. All right. Fight with my family.

Fight with my family. Go check it out. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Well done. Fantastic. Ah, yes. We've been all over the wrestling world for the last several years, huh?

Yeah. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, you could stream the NFL on Westwood One for free, sponsored by AutoZone, everybody. All season long, you can listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL Live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or on your Westwood One affiliate station's digital platforms. Kevin Harland, Kurt Warner with the call, certainly this Monday night from Kansas City, and then me in the Monday Night Football studio all season long for free. And get in the zone with AutoZone.

The free AutoZone fix finder service can help you find a fix for free. Restrictions apply. Get in the zone.

AutoZone. All right. I am completely biased when it comes to sideline reporters.

I'm married to one. Yes, sir. Remember the times when Suze was doing the Saturday games on ABC, some of the college football games. Toriko was in the booth, and there were a handful of other analysts that she was working with too. She worked with Gary Thorne. She worked with some great announcers, and Suze would be on the phone all week long learning about players and their stories.

That's how we first met Sean Merriman. She covered Sean Merriman's story at Maryland and got to know him and got photographs from his mom and all that stuff. And then it would be somewhat frustrating for her to be straight up with you about how she wouldn't get on the air sometimes and tell these stories that she was ready to tell because the game cadence didn't call for it.

And then frequently, it would be boiled down to is somebody hurt or not. I remember one time she called a game in Colorado, Colorado, Nebraska. There was a fight going on in the stands. She did it all, and it was just hard work, and she would fly out on a Wednesday and travel through 15 different small airports to get to places. But she loved it. My God, did she love it because she loved the storytelling, and she loved the reporting, and she loved all of it, and she was great at it. And now we're seeing her here, obviously, in this chair.

And the reason why I say it is I'm biased, and I'm living with one very pissed off sideline reporter right now based on what Carissa Thompson said on the Pardon My Take podcast. Now, I first met Carissa when she was in the dues paying part of her career. She was in the middle.

She would be sitting there in the middle of the night at NFL Network doing updates and just sitting there doing nothing, and then obviously we've seen what she's gone on to do. And her saying to Big Cat and PFT that she sometimes, on occasion, would make stuff up because coaches were apparently not talking, coming out at halftime. And then today she put out a statement that it's the elephant in the room.

It sure is. I have a responsibility to myself and my employers to clarify what is being reported. And on a podcast this week, I said I would make up reports early in my career when I worked as a sideline reporter before I transitioned to my current host role. Working in media, I understand how important words are, and I chose the wrong words to describe the situation.

I'm sorry. I've never lied about anything or been unethical during my time as a sports broadcaster. And then she wrote, in absence of a coach providing any information that I could further my report, I would use information that I learned and saw during the first half to create my report.

For example, if a team was 0 for 7 on third down, that would clearly be an area they need to improve on in the second half. In these instances, I've never attributed anything I said to a player or coach, which I mean straight up, I have nothing but respect for sideline reporters and for the tireless work they put in behind the scenes and on the field. Something she did say, by the way, in the soundbite before the one that was disseminated. I'm only appreciative and humbled to work alongside some of the best in the business and call them some of my best friends. And I'm sure she's referring to her podcast mate, Arian Andrews, who apparently on a podcast of theirs earlier, they both said that this is not the first time they had mentioned this type of reporting.

And straight up, I mean, again, I just went all in on my alma mater earlier. That's not what she said on a part by take, it wasn't like 0 for 7 this, it was using the coach speak and coach cliches as a space filler where she didn't need to fill any space. And that's the part of this that's so frustrating. And I don't blame the sideline reporters for being so upset because they are not space fillers.

They are not. I just came off of games with Jamie Riddle and Stacy Dales and Sarah Walsh and they worked their asses off. And that's what this glib comment about, yeah, coaches weren't talking or whatever, so I just made it up. And she also said one time, I guess on her own podcast, that Rod Marinelli said something completely inappropriate. And so she just made something up because she's not going to call Rod out on the air was the implication. And Susie was on the business end of that stuff too. Chuck Amato of NC State, one time she did a sideline report with him, she said, is there anything that you could see, she's running off to the locker room at half, is there anything that you see you can attack in the second half? And he looked at her and said, yeah, you. And then she ran after him and asked more questions.

And Gary Thorne even said, she's running like Hudson, was our dog at the time. And it's a tough job and anything that makes it seem like it's a space filler or anything else other than what it is, which is a crucial part of a broadcast with dynamite journalists is is beyond the pale. It's the only way to put it, and I'm assuming Karissa regrets it, she should be apologizing to everybody in the business right now, straight up.

If that's in fact what she seemed to do and that's what she said she did, and now that it's being appropriately called on the carpet. So and everybody who was responding, well, I don't listen to sideline reporters anyway. It's like, OK, so you didn't want to know what was happening to Joe Burrow last night. You don't want to know about any of these stories. What's going on?

Yeah, you do. And these people are doing that job and anything. I don't blame them for going all in on this.

So that's my two cents on the subject matter on that front. Power number three, Rod Woodson coming up here on the show. And also, again, just so everyone understands the mechanics of it, sideline reporters aren't there, you know, just pouncing on coaches if they come out of the locker room. This is set up throughout the week. It's set up throughout the week and when and in the production meeting, that was the last thing we said as a group to Belichick before he left our production meetings. Hey, Sarah's going to talk to you after, you know, your halftime coming out of the field second half. Cool with that?

Yeah. Some of them we say, can we do it on camera? And then some of them will say, no, not really. Or they'll say yes.

And then they're getting their asses kicked and they're saying then they'll say no. So there's no there's no shame of any reporter not getting a coach. I don't know of any producer that would put any pressure on somebody to do it. If they didn't get it from the interview, the whole thing is just terribly unfortunate. You know, and the whole like the Twitter pile on is just as bad as as is what Chris is. It's the glibness of it and how every single sideline report, if anybody said anything glib about my job, damn straight, I would tweet back at it.

Right. And if 25, 30 other hosts were tweeting about it, I would add my two cents because this is my livelihood. And I think deep down, Carissa knows that there's a bunch of people in the business that are rightfully pissed off.

And there's a lot of healing to be done within our industry. I understand for sports fans, you might feel differently from your end of things. Number three, coming up, how wrestling really works and how you get the ratings, Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson, explain on 83 weeks, too much time is spent discussing talent's age. The younger demo is just as excited about Paul Heyman or John Cena or an undertaker or Becky Lanchard. I don't care what their birth certificate says. They're going to draw a younger demo because they're fun to watch and they're great entertainers. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.